Reading the Four Major Party Platforms, 2016

Platform: n. A list of what politicians are supposed to be trying to do.

I’ve been telling my friends that I’ve tuned out of politics during the 2016 primary season, mainly because there have been too many candidates to keep track of, and because it has been mostly a circus sideshow beneath my dignity. I told several of my politically interested friends that I’ll get more into following the race after the conventions, after the teams have picked their players. Today is the first day of August, 2016, and that time has come.

The plan I’ve hatched to become politically informed for the remainder of the election season is to read and comment upon the four major party platforms. Libertarian, Green, Republican, and Democratic.

I’ve been working two jobs this summer, and I’ve got a family history project that I’d rather do. Time to read through these platforms is scarce, but I’ll see how far I can get. I’ll go section by section, make my comments as terse as possible, and see if I can give each section a general thumbs up or down.

I haven’t decided the order in which I’ll do them. I’ll probably bounce around, to be fair, but perhaps favor the Libertarians and Greens. Since the Republicans and Democrats seem to be dwindling into irrelevancy, I don’t know if I ought to waste so much scarce time on them.